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gift from God to those who believe in Him. It is the most powerful force on the earth.
The power of prayer lies not in the prayer but in God who stands at the other end of our cry.
Prayer is the channel by which God’s mercies are welcomed on the earth. It receives and welcomes heaven’s help, heaven’s life and heaven’s rule on the earth and into our lives. Without it the earth would be "God forsaken". With it God’s help and mercies are received.
“And without faith it is impossible to please him (God). For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
The most supernaturally empowered believers know how to approach God in prayer with confidence, and through it draw down God’s resources and blessings on their own lives and the lives of others.
As we come to God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus we can approach Him with great boldness. “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)

Prayer is Welcoming God’s Will
Through prayer we use our will to consciously, deliberately and confidently embrace God’s will, mercies and blessings into our lives.
• Through it we embrace the plans, purposes and call of God on our lives.
• Through it we receive from God the inner strengthening and outer anointing to become open channels of the kingdom of God.
• Through prayer the presence, power, purposes and mercies of God come flooding into our lives and situations.
Prayer is not forcing our will on God or ‘twisting His arm.’ It is asking God to do what He has already revealed He wants to do. Prayer is related to God’s will.
Since prayer is related to God’s will, it is related to God’s word, which is the revelation of God’s will. “And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.” (I John 5:14-15) This is amazing! We can be sure our prayer will be answered if we ask according to His will. If we ask according to His will, we can consider it done!
When we read the Bible we discover what His will is. We are now in the position to pray with confidence, because we know that our prayers are in line with His will, and will, therefore, be answered.

Why is Prayer Necessary?
When man was created he was given dominion upon the earth. We were given dominion over the earth to rule over it in partnership with God’s resources and counsel. Prayer is necessary because God will not impose His will upon us. He will not bypass our free will. He reveals His will to us and then invites us to embrace and accept it. He waits until we come into agreement with Him.
“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth touching anything it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18-19)
God waits for us to come into agreement with His will. We can bind ourselves to His will and loose ourselves from all that is not His will. We can release His will into our situations, and loose ourselves from that which is not His will. In this way His kingdom advances and replaces what is not His will with His will. The curse is replaced with the blessing and chaos with His benign order.
The principle of prayer is that earth moves heaven. Heaven waits for earth to come into agreement. What an awesome responsibility and privilege!
This is why God says: “Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me.” (Isaiah 45:11)
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)
“Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13)
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16)
God has given these prayer promises to all believers so that His will can be done on earth as it is in heaven. The key of prayer is the most important key that Jesus left with His followers. It is the greatest key of the supernaturally empowered believer.
Prayer is not the refuge of the helpless. It is the powerful equipment of those who embrace and release God’s kingdom on the earth.

Aspects of Prayer
The believer’s prayer, unlike the prayer of the pagan (or the one untutored in the scriptures), has power because it is based on:
• the revelation of God’s will
• confident access to God through the blood of Jesus
• the engagement of our will and lives to receive and seek His will
• the use of our tongue to make our requests known and to speak forth the will of God into our situations, and
• the authority of the name of Jesus
The prayer of the supernaturally empowered believer is a co-operative enterprise between him and God to bring God’s will to bear in the situations of need. The prayer of the pagan, the unbeliever, or the one unlettered in the word of God is based on hope, wish and guess. The prayer of the believer, on the other hand, is based on the knowledge of God’s will i.e. the knowledge of what God wants to do. It is based on a revelation of what God’s will is. We know that God wants to improve things on the earth. His will is better than the status quo. Prayer is grounded on the knowledge that God’s will, when it is released into any situation, will bring changes for the better. These changes may be changes in us, changes in the attitudes of others, changes in our perception, or some other change in the situation itself.
The believer’s prayer is a compassionate partnership to establish God’s benign will on the earth and to replace oppression with blessing.

Pray & Say
Prayer is not simply a matter of projecting thoughts into the air. It is not a mere devotional exercise. It is serious divine business. It is the act of transacting spiritual business with God Himself with our words. In law we transact business contracts with our written signatures. In the Spirit we transact spiritual business with our spoken words.

Jesus warned us not to pray as the pagans, who pray without authority and without assurance. He empowers us to pray with authority from the relationship with God the Father that He has established for us and to pray using the authority of His name.
When you pray say: “Our Father in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven….” (Matthew 6:9)
Since prayer is based on the revealed will of God we can take the promises of God as revealed in His word and ask Him to fulfill them in our lives. We can then declare them over our lives.
Most believers are untrained in the use of their tongue. They do not realize its importance in advancing God’s will in their lives. “You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established for you: and the light shall shine upon your ways.” (Job 22:28)
“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him”. (Mark 11:23)
Supernaturally empowered believers know the importance of using their tongues to release God’s will into situations. Through it God’s will is embraced, received and advanced in the situations of their lives.

Prayer & Declaration in the Name of Jesus
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.” (John 14:13-14)
“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you.” (John 15:16)
“And in that day you shall ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give you.” (John 16:23)
This is an invitation to approach God the Father and to use Jesus’ name to invoke God’s will into situations. We approach God not on the grounds of our own piety but through the blood of Jesus and using His name we pray with His authority for God’s will to come forth on the earth.
We can have tremendous boldness and authority in prayer because Jesus has given us His name. By giving us His name we can act as His delegated authority. As His delegated authority we can invoke the will of His Father to move God’s will and plan from heaven into earth. We can also, in His name, decree His will into situations over which He has given us authority.
“Before now you have asked nothing in my name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24)
Jesus gives us His name to use in vertical prayer upward to God the Father. We can also use His name to command God’s will into situations. This prayer is not to God but a command from God through us as His delegated authority.
The prayer of command is used in ministry – speaking God’s will into situations and commanding oppressive spirits from situations. Every believer should be trained to use the name of Jesus in this way. We are not imposing our will on situations but we are imposing God’s will into situations.

Warfare & Prayer
Prayer advances God’s will against that which is not His will.
Joshua knew that God had given the Land of Promise to the children of Israel. He also knew that he had to fight to possess God’s promises. God’s promises are not automatically fulfilled in our lives. We must embrace them in prayer and faith and advance them by declarative faith. The believer’s fight is not physical but it is spiritual. We are aware that there are oppressive spirits that resist the advance of God’s kingdom and prevent His will being done. In prayer we ask that God’s will overcome and replace the darkness. We also use the name of Jesus to take authority over spirits working on the earth,
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